Blogpost from the Edge

1. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Until I heard from Donald J. Trump speak last night, I had no idea how scared of everything I’m supposed to be. Gun fire in the streets, terrorists knocking at my door (I’m having a peep hole put in), and a slew of numbers and statistics that show that Obama was the worst American president ever and Hillary Clinton is a well-known crook who wants to abolish the Second Amendment and has enriched her friends and herself at the expense of taxpayers. I know all this to be true because Trump announced that if we wanted lies. we’d have to go see the Democrats because there will be no lies from him. Of course, he meant, starting NOW! The speech was a mixed bag of true, false and mostly false statements. However, there was no shortage of anger.

2. This is no way to run a railroad. I’m not sure why anyone would expect Donald Trump to be able to run a White House, domestic and foreign policies when his operation can’t get out of its own way now. This was Cleveland. No offense, but sports fans in the city call it “Believeland.” Not in the literal sense but in the way that you’d call a real big guy “Tiny” or a bald guy “Curley.” I shudder to think what this guy’s operation goes international. Is it hyperbole to say we should worry about the end of civilization as we know if he’s elected? I’m not sure.

3. Gives me the creeps. Ok, I’m not sure but I thought I saw Trump cop a butt-feel on his own daughter Ivanka after she introduced him. Hey, it’s not like there isn’t some troubling history here.

Yuck.

3.. Lyin’ Paul. Paul Manafort can’t tell the truth. Does he think he can say whatever he wants and no one will check? It goes like this: Manafort goes on TV and flat-out denies there was any plagiarism in Melania’s speech. And that was after we saw side-by-side pieces of Melania’s speech and Michelle Obama’s speech. Days later, the campaign makes a liar out of him when the writer comes clean and admits it.

And it goes like this: Trump makes headlines by saying he would not automatically defend our NATO allies if they were attacked. He said he’d have to look at whether the particular country under attack has made its required contribution to the alliance, essentially reducing the decision to a financial deal. Not up on your dues? Au revoir, France. Syonara, Japan (not a NATO country but an ally nonetheless). Adios, Spain.

Manafort objects saying the New York Times got it wrong. Guarding against such claims, the Times releases the transcript laying bare the truth-challenged Manafort again.

I admit, I had never heard of Manafort before he joined Trump’s campaign. Turns out he had about a half-dozen presidential campaign losses in his career among Ford, Reagan, George H.W., Dole, and McCain. What, no Wendell Wilkie? I never heard of Manafort because he’s a relic of campaigns, and losing ones at that.

How much of a fossil is this guy? Check this. (best part is Chris Matthews asking Manafort if he knows what he just said).

4. I never thought I’d ever say this, but I would have done the exact same thing as Ted Cruz when he chose his family over ensuring his political future. Trump somehow linked Cruz’s father to the Kennedy assassination and then tweeted that unflattering picture of Heidi Cruz next to the model Melania. Of course Cruz wasn’t going to endorse him! You don’t have to be a political whiz to see that one coming.

Although, for effect, I wished Cruz walked up to the microphone and flipped a double bird to the Neanderthals on the floor of the convention and then just walked off.

5. The ladies’ man. Hard to believe those women over there at FOX News spurned the sexual advances of Roger Ailes. I mean, c’mon, he’s is one hulk of a man.

Roger Ailes

On a serious note, the irony is that Ailes quits the same day Trump accepts the nomination. It is Ailes’ FOX News that made it possible for people like Trump and Cruz to run.

6.. Better talk to Pence. Silicon Valley entrepreneur Peter Thiel got a plumb spot before Trump took the stage. Thiel is openly gay and declared himself proud of it. He got a standing ovation. Well, Mr. Thiel, if your ticket is elected, you’ll have a vice president that does not think you should be able to marry who you love (or even enter into a civil union), that you are not worthy of equal protection in the workplace or in housing, who would not let you serve openly in the military and who thinks you can be converted to being straight.

7.. In my mind I’m leaving Carolina. The NBA is yanking the 2017 all-star game out of North Carolina because of that state’s embrace of an anti-transgender law. Let’s not forget that Pence signed an anti-gay law under the guise of “religious freedom.” People freaked and Pence caved. Advocates should be concerned.

8..What I missed most in this convention…We were deprived of seeing Trump’s “Freedom Kids.”

9. The big takeaway. So what did we learn from last night? It’s late July and the Red Sox are in first place. That is all.